Midlife Issues Research Articles

Self-initiated expatriation (SIE) by older women: an exploratory study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the SIE experiences of women over 50, its drivers, nature and outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on participant data from in-depth life story interviews with 21 women who had undertaken SIE from New Zealand and later returned. From this sample two subgroups (aid volunteers and contract carers) are utilized as “vignette” exemplars, and common factors elicited.FindingsSIE provided a desirable liberation from pressing mid-life issues. It was transformational for all participants, sometimes through serendipitous career development, but more commonly, after return, through personal development, changes in values, decreased emphasis on paid work, and simpler lifestyle.Research limitations/implicationsThe small sample size and qualitative methodology make the study exploratory rather than definitive and the specific location and small sample size limit transferability. The snowballing recruitment method may have disproportionately encouraged similar, and positively disposed, participants.Practical implicationsThe availability and special characteristics of this expatriate and repatriate group for potential employing organizations are considered, as are the gains in human capital and individual well-being to society as a whole. The women studied provide excellent role models for older women considering independent overseas travel and employment.Originality/valueBy focusing on older women, this study extends the boundaries of the SIE literature. The findings highlight the limitations of work-centric theories of SIE, careers and older workers, the non-linear nature of women’s careers and the heterogeneity of later life pathways. The study is also original in demonstrating major positive transformational effects of expatriation on all its participants.

When the Bubble Bursts: Clinical Perspectives on Midlife Issues

When the Bubble Bursts: Clinical Perspectives on Midlife Issues

When the Bubble Bursts: Clinical Perspectives on Midlife Issues

EDA GOLDSTEIN: When the Bubble Bursts: Clinical Perspectives on Midlife Issues. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 2005, 239 pp., $49.95, ISBN 0-881163-348-8. This book deals with the midlife years, their special issues, and the distinctive problems that patients over age 50 pose for psychotherapists. Using both developmental and psychotherapeutic frameworks, Goldstein methodically covers the psychoanalytic literature on the subject. She leans heavily on the work of others, and after reviewing the long-standing debate between Kernberg and Kohut, she adopts a basically Kohutian self-psychological point of view, both theoretically and in practice. The book is clearly written and quite easy to follow. At times it borders on the simplistic so that it's difficult to identify its primary audience. Experienced clinicians could benefit from the collation of diverse materials on this important subject and students likely would find this a useful introductory text. As a psychoanalyst, I did, however, have a strong reaction to the book's great abundance of clinical material, most of which was evidently drawn from recorded psychotherapy sessions. The therapeutic work is based on the supposedly healing properties of therapists' surface understanding of, and empathie responses to, their patients' material, dilemmas, and conflicts. The sessions are laced with what is claimed to be therapists' judicious use of direct advice; explications of the evident implications of a patient's communications, behaviors and problems; selected personal self-revelations by the therapist (e.g., that the therapist had lost a homosexual partner but had found a replacement); and other interventions said to be supportive and curative. Even though it can be argued that no book is representative of how psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists work today-multiple theories and practices of psychoanalysis are well known-I took this book as a model of where psychoanalysis stands today. Thus, the comments that follow could be made about any current psychoanalytic text, an effort that I have made regarding other prominent psychoanalytic writings in my most recent books (Langs, R. (2004). Fundamentals of Adaptive Psychotherapy and Counselling. London: Palgrave-Macmillan; Langs, R. (in press). Love and Death in Psychotherapy. London: Palgrave-Macmillan). The clinical substance of this book reflects the current psychoanalytic tendency to believe and intervene in ways that reflect either the conviction that there is no unconscious component to human emotional suffering and emotionally charged communications, or that the unconscious component is to be found solely in the transparent, theory-guided implications ascribed by therapists to their patients' material-implications of which their patients seemingly are unaware. A word is a word, a sentence a sentence, a thought a thought. There is no sense of symbolic, or more critically, encoded meaning in the communications of either patients or therapists. There are no dreams to decipher, no ground rules or framework to explore and grapple with as these affect the therapeutic couple and the patient's psychotherapy. There is no unconscious flow of communications between patient and therapist, no unconscious realm of experience as it affects emotional maladaptations and human creativity, and there is nothing of substance beyond the direct meanings of what is said and done by both patients and their therapists. …

Successful professional women in midlife: How organizations can more effectively understand and respond to the challenges

Executive Overview Women have entered the work force in increasing numbers since the mid-1970s. Now, for the first time, organizations employ a significant number of women who have reached midlife and midcareer. These women provide a model of high-level performance that can offer lessons for the wider population facing midlife issues. Although many organizations have attempted to respond to the needs of working women, the most common programs likely are inadequate for these midlife women. These women bring to organizations personal maturity, significant professional experience, and a desire for new challenges. They have significantly different needs from their younger female counterparts and their male midlife contemporaries. They have coped with the challenges of midlife in ways that have changed their perspective, altered their role definition and performance, and modified their job or work environment. Organizations that wish to retain these women and actively address midlife issues for the aging workforce should focus on changing human resource policies and practices and creating a culture to support and effectively use their talents and motivate their continued achievement.

Between adolescents and aging grandparents: Midlife concerns of adults in the “Sandwich generation”

This study examined whether the midlife transition of men and women in the “sandwich generation” was related to their 15- to 19-year-old adolescent's psychosocial development and their relationships with their own aging parents (i.e., the grandparents). One hundred eighty-six (186) respondents representing adolescents, mothers, and fathers from 62 families completed questionnaires that assessed adolescents' psychological autonomy and involvement in adult-type roles, adults' midlife transition and marital quality, and adults' relationships with their aging parents. Analyses conducted by domain revealed that women reported greater concerns with midlife issues when their adolescents demonstrated fewer signs of psychological autonomy and involvement in adult-type roles whereas men reported more intense midlife concerns when they experienced more strain in their relations with their own parents. When adolescent, grandparent, and marital factors were considered conjointly, the results indicated that women's level of midlife concerns was still related to their adolescents' development, but men's level of concerns was most strongly related to their satisfaction with the quality of their marriages. The discussion focuses on adult women's and men's experience of the midlife transition in relation to adolescents' development, parents' relationships with aging grandparents, and marital quality.

Midlife mysteries: A groupwork response

For a variety of reasons, women may find the middle years a difficult time and their health and well-being may suffer as a result. Some are isolated and have no one to share their concerns with and this may make the situation worse. The purpose of this paper is to show how a theme-centred, feminist groupwork approach can be an effective form of intervention for these women. Such an approach provides the opportunity to bring women together to share their experiences and work collectively and constructively on common issues of midlife.

When the bubble bursts: Narcissistic vulnerability in mid-life

Mid-life poses many stresses that are taxing even for those with relatively cohesive selves and good compensatory structures as well as those who show more severe pathology. This article will discuss mid-life issues, a self psychological perspective on mid-life, and will describe three individuals whose presenting problems were triggered by mid-life events that stimulated their underlying narcissistic vulnerability. The article will discuss and illustrate special emphases in the treatment of such patients drawing on self psychological theory generally.

The Menopause: Comprehensive Management

Few issues in modern medicine cause more concern than the aging patient population and the imperative to contain the costs of caring for them. first two editions of this textbook may have been ahead of their time, but this third one arrives when the topics of menopause and health maintenance in the aging woman have truly come to the fore. The inclusion of a chapter on pregnancy is an interesting sign of the book is divided into four sections, each examining menopause from a different point of view. first, Aging and the Menopause, begins with a provocative look at the biology of aging by editor Bernard Eskin. Another chapter addresses psychiatric myths of the menopause, exploring midlife issues in their social, cultural, and psychological context. inclusion of a chapter on pregnancy is an interesting sign of the times. second section, Clinical Problems in the

Parent-Adolescent Communication in Sandwich Generation Families

This study examined parent-adolescent communication infamilies of middle-adolescent children in which at least one parent was providing assistance to an aging grandparent. Parents and adolescents from 62 three-generation families completed questionnaires. Multiple regression analysis indicated that developmental characteristics of family members and mothers' strain in their relationships with grandparents were related to variations in parent-adolescent communication. Specifically, the majorfindings were that (a) adolescents who exhibited greater psychosocial maturity indicated that they shared better communication with parents than did less mature adolescents, (b) fathers' heightened concerns over midlife issues were related both to fathers' and adolescents' reports of poorer communication, and (c) mothers' experiences of strain in their relationships with grandparents were associated with their perceptions of poorer communication with their children. These results illustrate the usefulness of combining life-span development and family systems theories to serve as aframework for understanding parent-adolescent communication in a multigenerational context.

Mid-life issues and the workplace of the 90s: a guide for human resource specialists

Preface Introduction The Maturing Work Force: An Overview Why People Act as They Do Family Issues as They Relate to the Work Force Mid-Life, a Time of Change The Dysfunctional Workplace Managers' Dilemmas Technology's Impact on the Workplace Bibliography Index

Normative mid-life concerns among Vietnam veterans with post-traumatic stress disorders: Some preliminary empirical findings

Most Vietnam veterans are now in the mid-life years. Veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may find that mid-life concerns both precipitate and exacerbate their PTSD symptomatology. Preliminary research with four groups of adult males supports this notion. A cross-sectional study with nonveteans, Vietnam era noncombatants, Vietnam combat veterans not in treatment, and Vietnam veterans in treatment for PTSD suggests that the mid-life issues of affiliation, identity, demonic guilt, and work may be the most problematic. Implications for treatment are discussed.

Lasting Impressions

This paper addresses an ignored aspect of countertransference which results in the therapist's own learning and growth. The author describes her "mirror countertransference" experiences with a group of mid-life males and females struggling with issues of aging. Also discussed are those universal mid-life issues which must be addressed by the therapist from a professional and personal perspective. This can lead to shifts in psychological perception and self-identity for both the therapist and the patient.

Mental Health and the Care of the Soul in Mid-Life

Presents the case of a forty-eight year old woman to illustrate the dynamics frequently found in middle-life depressions which often form the basis for the so-called mid-life crisis. Drawing on notions of the soul found in the writings of Plato and Aristotle, it is argued that these concepts are particularly important in orienting both psychotherapist and patient to a vital perspective especially helpful in dealing with midlife issues.

Issues of mid life

Issues of mid life

Success or failure: psychotherapeutic considerations for women in conflict.

The authors describe conflicts experienced by women who request therapeutic intervention because of symptoms of depression, anxiety, marital discord, difficulty in asserting themselves, or inability to complete work that would lead to advancement. They discuss the developmentally based difficulties experienced by women in making career choices, advancing their careers, and facing midlife issues. The therapist who deals with such patients must be aware of reality-based factors and of his or her own values and attitudes as they influence choice of therapeutic approach.